Allbritton
Communications executives continued to get facetime with the FCC Friday
to make their case that the FCC needs to either condition the
Comcast/NBCU deal to protect local market competition
or reject it.
According to
ex parte filings obtained by B&C, Allbritton
President Fred Ryan and outside antitrust counsel Rick Rule met with
Commissioner Robert McDowell on Friday (Aug. 13) to
discuss their grave concerns about Comcast's market power if it
combines with NBCU, particularly the impact on the D.C. market, where
Allbritton owns WJLA TV and NewsChannel 8 (which is being renamed TBDTV).
And on Aug.
11, Allbritton CEO Robert Allbritton met with FCC Chairman JuliusGenachowski to discuss the "potentially ominous" implications forNewsChannel 8.
The
conversation included the online access issue, according to Allbritton,
with the company talking about the potential for Comcast to favor its
Web sites over politico.com or TBD.com.
Senior VP
Jerald Fritz told B&C that they want to make sure
that "nothing is done to kill off NewsChannel 8," and that the company
has "serious concerns" about about the access to
online issue.
